


Lips that would kiss form prayers

by Mellaithwen



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Not A Fix-It, Rogue One Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:05:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9050950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellaithwen/pseuds/Mellaithwen
Summary: With Cassian’s arm draped over her shoulder, and his injured body leaning into hers, Jyn leads him to the shore.
  Spoilers for Rogue One





	

…

 

 _In this last of meeting places_  
_We grope together_  
_And avoid speech  
_ _Gathered on this beach of the tumid river_

_\- T. S Eliot_

 

…

 

 

The birds have stopped singing, and an eerie silence has descended on Scarif.The gunfire has drawn to a halt, and anyone left standing is struck dumb by what they can see in the distance.

 

Across the horizon a great plume of smoke is growing in size from the epicentre of a huge explosion. The ground shakes and the wind carries with it the distinct smell of charred durasteel and burning rubber.

 

The air tastes like copper, and all around Jyn the palm trees are bent in half, or on fire from theinitial blast wave. She can see bodies further along the beach. Rebels and troopers alike lie strewn across the ground, while others are left floating in the bloody swell, like stuffed dolls made of straw, and Jyn’s heart feels heavy with loss. 

 

The water is coming closer, dragged, and pushed and pulled against its will--while the bright light of the death star’s destruction is turning the horizon a brilliant burnt orange. Jyn realises, for a strange moment, that it’s been years since she’s seen the sea, and she thinks, in this light, it’s easy to _pretend_.

 

It’s easy to ignore the pale pallor of Cassian’s cheeks as he goes into shock from his injuries. It’s easy to pretend that the streaks of dirt and blood on her own face are nothing more than shadows cast by the sun rising up to meet them. A new dawn. A new hope. Rebellions are built on such things after all. 

 

With Cassian’s arm draped over her shoulder, and his injured body leaning into hers, Jyn leads him to the shore, and stop when they reach the edge where the tide is coming in. 

 

The Captain’s knees buckle, and Jyn joins him there on the ground. The sand is soft beneath them as they slump where they sit while across from them, the billowing clouds of ash and dust climb ever higher into the sky, until they’re obscuring the Imperial weapon as it hovers in the atmosphere, ominous and cruel. It hides behind the carnage it has wrought, while on the planet below thousands die for the sake of the Empire.

 

The damned Empire. 

 

Jyn wonders if she should say something profound, or inspiring, but all of the lessons her father and Saw Gerrara taught her as a child seem empty and hollow now. They, like Jyn herself, have served their purpose. They lead her to this moment, to this planet, to this shore. 

 

To this end.

 

Cassian reaches out for her hand, and Jyn returns the gesture. She looks down at their fingers intertwined, and thinks, what a brief closeness it is that they’ve shared. Her life has been unfortunately full of them. Her childhood, her rescue, her rebellion. Abrupt interludes, that don’t quite amount to the whole story. People passing by, drifting into her life like spectres, promising to put an end to her loneliness with their smiles and their kindness, before they’re gone again just as quickly as they came.

 

Except...

 

Cassian smiles a little, though Jyn suspects it pains him to do so, and she cannot help but wish for more time, for this particular instant to stretch for eternity. For Cassian to be forever smiling, for the blast to be always that second away from reaching them. 

 

But it cannot, she knows as much. 

 

She learnt from a young age that there is no use in regret, and brief though their time together has been, Jyn knows that she will cherish this moment, beside him, until the very end.

 

“Your father would be proud of you,” Cassian says, and his fingers tighten their grip in her palm. She can’t help but notice how cold his skin feels, how raspy his voice sounds now. How dark the stains on his cream tunic have become.

 

The sound of the rumbling horror is closer now, and the screams and shouts are rushing towards them, like an awful groundswell. The strange cloud of dust and debris is billowing upwards and out, destroying everything in its path.

 

Their moment is ending, their time together is spent. Jyn reaches out, letting go of Cassian’s hand, to grip his shirt instead and pull him towards her. She can feel him trembling, but he returns the embrace as much as he is able, and whispers in Jyn’s ear; “I’m proud of you too.”

 

Her eyes sting with tears because unlike everybody else in Jyn’s life, Cassian has actually stayed. Or at the very least, he came back. No one’s ever done that before, and she’s so used to being left behind that it never occurred to her that someone would...that he would...want to.

 

The crystal around her neck pulses gently against her skin, as though it too can sense that the end is near. As though it is as resigned to its fate, as Jyn and Cassian are to theirs. 

 

_Trust in the force_ , her mother had said before leaving to defend their homestead, a variation, Jyn thinks, of Chinnuck’s prayer on Jedha, and on the ship. _I am one with the force, and the force is with me._

 

She whispers it under her breath now in Cassian’s arms, over and over again, and his grip grows ever tighter in response.There is no doubt in either of their minds that their crew, their friends, their fleeting family are dead, and that soon they too will be gone.

 

A sudden warm feeling of calm washes over her, and her heartbeat matches the steady thrum of the crystal at her breast. _There is no chaos, there is harmony_ , she remembers hearing once, eavesdropping on her mother as she packed away precious trinkets into an ornately carved box and hid it away. _There is no death, there is the force._

 

Jyn burrows her head into Cassian’s shoulder, closing her eyes to shield them from the ever intensifying bright light of the explosion on the horizon. She digs her fingers into his spine, and feels relieved when he squeezes her back, both of them holding on for dear life. 

 

She hadn’t understood it before, when Cassian had welcomed her into the rebellion, and onto Yavin IV, but now, in his embrace, with the world ending around them, and the teaching’s of her mother’s lost religion flowing through her mind, she takes a deep breath and thinks, this is it.

 

_I’m finally home._

  

 

\- Fin. 

**Author's Note:**

> The title, and excerpt are from TS Eliot's 'The Hollow Men' which is so so very apt.
> 
> The Art of Rogue One refers to Jyn's mother being a Jedi, and though it's not explicitly mentioned in the final film, I choose to believe that this is still the case :)
> 
> This is quite possibly the most un-christmassy thing I could have posted today! Feel free to say hello on [tumblr](http://mellaithwen.tumblr.com/) :)


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